Integration Guide

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Purpose of this Guide

1 Network Participant journey with easy steps to integrate with ONDC

2 Provide the necessary resources for Integration

3 Provide communication channels for query resolution

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How to use this Guide
Keep an eye out for the following icons or formatting:

Icon/ Formatting Meaning

Highlights why a step is important

Links for documents, recordings and other important resources.

Link for Meetings

Milestone/ Action

To be completed by Technology Service Provider

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Network Participant Journey

Onboarding - Refers to introductory phase of a potential Network Participants journey including

initial briefings, completion of the NP Profile Form, planning for Implementation etc.

Staging - Staging refers to the Sandbox environment available for potential Network Participants to
carry out their tech development and testing

Pre-Production - It is the environment where Network Participants carry out end-to-end testing
before going live on the network

Production - It is the live environment where ONDC transactions are carried out

Onboarding Staging Pre-Production Production

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Network Participant Journey
The following steps comprise a Network Participants Journey on ONDC:

1 2 3 4 5
Introduction Role Network Implementation Implementation
to ONDC Selection Participant Planning A. Technology Development
Profile Form B. Policy Implementation
C. Operational Readiness
D. Community Engagement

10 9 8 7 6

Go - Live on Final Checklist Testing on Verification & Testing on

Production Verification Pre-Production Certification Staging

Onboarding Staging Pre-Production Production 5

Onboarding

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Step1: Introduction to ONDC | What is ONDC and how does it work?
Your ONDC journey begins with the following briefings and resources:
Business Briefing Call Technology Briefing Call Introductory Resources

In this call the team will: Provide you with an overview of: 1. ONDC Strategy Paper
1. Walk you through the 1. APIs for Integration 2. Website
basics of ONDC 2. Resources available for 3. ONDC Business Briefing
2. Provide a value proposition Integration on Github and Presentation
for entities Swaggerhub 4. ONDC Technical Briefing
3. Call Details: 3. Call Details: Presentation
Tuesday 3:00 - 4:00 PM Friday 11:00 – 12:00 PM
Meeting link Meeting link

Once you have attended the briefing calls please fill the NP Profile Form
An accurate understanding of ONDC is essential in helping you pick your role in the network
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Step 2: Role Selection | What role will your organisation play on ONDC?
An entity can play various roles on ONDC, the primary roles* are:
Seller Node Buyer Node Technology Service Provider
1. Marketplace Seller Node - Buyer Node - Any entity that Any entity that enables either a
Any entity that enables third enables any buyer to search for seller node or a buyer node on
party merchants / service and buy products or services on ONDC by providing a software
providers to sell their products the ONDC network application (either stand alone or
on the ONDC Network through cloud)
2. Inventory Seller Node – Any
entity that will act as a “seller on
record” on ONDC selling from
their own inventory
Network Participants includes Seller side and Buyer side nodes, TSPs are not Network Participants.
You can use the following documents to help you determine your role on the network:
Network Participant Regulatory Requirements Taxation Obligations
Agreement for NPs for NPs
*Note – We recommend that you review the Network Agreement for legal definitions of these roles. 8
Domains | What are Domains and how do they differ from categories?
To understand ONDC and how it expands, it is important to distinguish between Domains and Categories on
the Network
Domains Categories

● At ONDC, Domains can be distinguished by ● Category constitutes products that have

the way products/services are bought and similar market or usage characteristics.
sold (Ex. Retail, Logistics, Financial Services, Some examples are:
Mobility & Travel etc.) Retail domain (Categories: Grocery, F&B,
● Domain switch/ change usually merits a Consumer Electronics. etc)
protocol modification whereas new category Financial Services domain (Categories:
introduction in a domain doesn't Banking, Insurance, etc)
● An entity can play the role of a Buyer node
or Seller node or both in each domain. (Ex. A
Seller node in the Retail domain can act as a
Buyer node in the Logistics domain
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Step 3: Fill the Network Participant Profile Form
Once your team has been through briefing calls and decided on a role/roles to play on ONDC, they must fill
the NP Profile Form (as mentioned in Step 1):

NP Profile Form

The NP Profile Form is crucial in helping ONDC Team understand your business profile and support
you on the next steps accordingly

Once you’ve filled the NP Profile form we will add your SPOCs to ONDC Slack Community

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Step 4: Implementation Planning | We’ve filled the NP Form, what next?
Once your organization has completed the NP Profile Form, you can initiate Implementation. Here are the
relevant resources:

Implementation Plan Briefing Call

Implementation Plan Briefing Deck

Monday 3:00 - 4:00 PM, Meeting Link
Implementation Plan – Retail & Logistics

The ONDC Implementation Plan provides the steps for integrating with ONDC. It will act as
your primary guide document through the integration journey

Participants should:
1. Make a copy of this document and create a customized plan for your organization
2. Share the plan with team@ondc.org so that our teams can follow real time updates

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Implementation

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Step 5: Implementation | An Overview
Once your team has completed the onboarding steps including Introductory calls and implementation
briefing, they can initiate implementation. This includes:

Phase 1: Development

Technology Policy Operational

Development Compliance Readiness

Phase 2: Testing & Operationalization

The following environments have been provisioned for testing and operationalization:
1. Staging (Sandbox Environment)
2. Pre-Production
3. Production

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 Technology
Development

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Step 5A: Technology Development | What are the APIs for integration and
where do I find them?

Here is an overview of the APIs that need to be build to be compliant to the ONDC protocol:

Post
Discovery Order Fulfillment
fulfillment

Search Select Init Confirm Update Cancel Status Track Support Rating

On_Search On_Select On_Init On_Confirm On_Update On_Cancel On_Status On_Track On_Support On_Rating

You can find all tech resources related to integration and development in the following documents:

Recordings of Community
Tech Quick-start Guide Protocol Specification
Calls with Tech Discussions

You can test your application with other participants on ONDC Staging environment, refer to Staging
Section for more information
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Credits for API Figure: Beckn
Step 5A: Technology Development | What is the minimum viable product for a
successful ONDC Integration?

Participants will be required to build for a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) during their integration journey.
The MVP documents for Retail and Logistics domains are provided below:

Retail MVP

Logistics MVP

Further, find the following:

Recordings of Community Calls with MVP Discussion

MVP Use Cases Checklist - provides use cases for testing for the MVP

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Step 5A: Technology Development | Key Technology Resources available for
NPs

Process flow for Order

Retail Transaction Logistics Transaction Process flow for Issue
Cancellation, returns &
Contracts Contracts Reporting
replacements

Order state & Error Handling & Signing & verification

Compliance
fulfillment state ONDC error codes utility

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Policy Implementation

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Step 5B: Policy Implementation | What is the ONDC Policy Framework?
ONDC Network Policy defines the framework for governance of ONDC and Network Participants>
Prior to reading the Network Policy Documents, we recommend you go over the following:

Introduction to ONDC Network Policies

ONDC Network Policies includes the following:

Chapter 1: Onboarding, compliance requirements Chapter 6: Issue and Grievance Management

and certification requirements Policy
Chapter 2: Business Rules Chapter 7: Network Data Governance Policy
Chapter 3: Commercial Model Chapter 8: Network Technology Governance
Chapter 4: Code of Conduct and Ethics Chapter 9: Termination and Suspension Policy
Chapter 5: Branding Guidelines Annexure A: Governance structure for Network
Policies

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Step 5B: Policy Implementation | How do I sign the Network Agreement?
To integrate with ONDC an NP must sign the Network Agreement. The Agreement is provided below:

Refer to the following documents for instructions on how to sign the Network Agreement:

How to acquire a DSC?

Assenting to Network Agreement will indicate agreement to all Network Policy Documents under
ONDC Network Policy.

Policy Compliance is necessary for going live on the network.

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Operational Readiness

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Step 5C: Go-Live Planning | Who and what do you want to enable on ONDC?
As you begin your implementation, you need to decide what part of your e-commerce universe you want to
enable on ONDC?

We will require the following details from you:

1. No. of Sellers/Buyers your team will bring to ONDC YOUR
E-COMMERCE
2. Category of goods your team will enable UNIVERSE
3. Cities where you will be operational
4. Pin-codes for Go-Live (If you are a logistics firm) GO-LIVE:
What you
5. Planned dates for milestones
bring to
ONDC for
testing
We request you to share this information with us on the
Implementation Plan itself as it helps us plan for expansion of
ONDC.

Note - Not all these fields may be applicable to you 22

Step 5C: Operational Readiness | How to enable ONDC transactions on ground?
Simultaneously, your teams must also work on operational preparedness required for ONDC Integration:

Customer Support Implementation (GRM) MVP Use Cases for Testing

Reconciliation and Payment Settlement

Support to Delivery Agents

Process for Monitoring of KPIs & SLAs

Additionally, for seller applications

Sharing Seller Profiles with ONDC

Checking seller preparedness. Refer to this questionnaire we prepared for checking seller
readiness

Refer to the Operational Readiness Checklist for a detailed view on operational preparedness
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Community
Engagement

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Implementation Resources | Community Engagement
ONDC Team uses the following channels to communicate with early stage participants:

ONDC Slack Community Calls

• You can download slack using this link • Community Calls are organised to provide
• Network Participants can use Slack to Network Participants an opportunity to
interact with one another and collaborate interact with the ONDC Team
on integration or testing • The recordings and presentations from
• Slack acts like a repository of all queries and previous calls can be found on this
questions that have been raised by various document
NPs in the past • Community Calls provide a great forum to
• The SPOCs mentioned in the NP Profile get your queries answered
form will be added to the Slack channel by Call Details – Tuesday 4.30 - 5.30 PM,
the ONDC Team Meeting Link

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Staging

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Step 6: Testing on Staging | What are the steps for entry to Staging Environment?
Now that you have the resources for Implementation, your team is ready to start building and testing.

What is Staging?
ONDC Team has created a sandbox environment where all early stage NPs can test
end-to-end transactions.
The process for entry to staging can be found in the following document:

Manual Entry to Staging Form for Entry to Staging

An NP has to complete their technology development while on staging. This can be summarized as:
1. Test end-to-end transaction flow based on the following checklists
2. You can use the following Buyer Reference Application for testing
3. Identify fellow early stage NPs on Slack for end to end testing by making a post

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Pre-Production

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Step 8: Testing on Pre-Production | How do we enter the Pre-Prod
Environment?

After completion of technological development and tech compliance, you can move to Pre-Production
Environment. (Currently, an approval based on the demo is needed for entry to Pre-Prod)

What is Pre-Production?
Pre-Production is the environment where NPs test their development to receive certification to
move to ONDC Production Environment.
The process for entry to pre-production can be found in the following document:

Entry to Pre-Production

You can use the following for support on testing in Pre-Production (Please provide details for SPOCs in the
sheet provided):
Link for Buyer reference application

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Step 8: Testing on Pre-Production | How does ONDC Team support NPs on
Pre-Prod?

Once NPs are on Pre-Production, ONDC Team supports them in the following ways:

1. Slack is the primary channel for communicating issues

2. Issue logging and tracking is done through Jira

ONDC Tech team will share further details on issue resolution upon your entry to Pre-Production

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Step 9: Final Checklist Verification | What steps does a NP have to execute on
Pre-Prod to Go-Live on Production Environment?

The following checklist provides the steps under technical, operational and regulatory compliance that must
be completed to qualify to move into Production environment. These are:

Final Compliance Checklist

Note:
• An NP must meet all the requirements provided in the document and obtain a go-ahead from
ONDC Tech and Ops team for move to Production
• In addition to the compliances captured in the checklist an NP may also be required to go
through functional testing with the ONDC team
• The checklist provided above is evolving and ONDC may update the same as per any contingent
requirement in the future

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Production

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Step 10: Go-Live on Production | How do we enter the Production Environment?
Successfully surpassing the threshold for functional testing and complying with the final checklist on
Pre-Prod will enable an NP to move to Production environment

What is the Production environment ?

Production is the live environment where live transactions take place with transfer of goods
and services. Your team must have met the compliance requirements for moving to
Production.

The process for entry to Production can be found in the following document:

Entry to Production

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Annexure 1

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List of Documents (1)
No. Name of Document

1 ONDC Website

2 ONDC Strategy Paper

3 ONDC Business Briefing Presentation

4 ONDC Technical Briefing Presentation

5 Network Participant Agreement

6 Regulatory Requirements for NPs

7 Taxation Obligations for NPs

8 Implementation Briefing Presentation

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List of Documents (2)
No. Name of Document

9 Tech Quick-start Guide

10 Recordings of Community Calls with Tech Discussions

11 Protocol Specification

12 Retail MVP

13 Logistics MVP

14 Recordings of Community Calls with MVP Discussion

15 Retail Transaction Contracts

16 Logistics Transaction Contracts

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List of Documents (3)
No. Name of Document

17 Process flow for Order Cancellation, returns & replacements

18 Process flow for Issue Reporting

19 Order state & fulfillment state

20 Error Handling & ONDC error codes

21 Signing & verification utility

22 Compliance

23 Introduction to ONDC Network Policies

24 ONDC Network Policies

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List of Documents (4)
No. Name of Document

25 Network Participant Agreement

26 NP Agreement FAQs

27 How to acquire a DSC?

28 Operational Readiness Checklist

29 Manual Entry to Staging

30 MVP Use Cases Checklist

31 Technical Compliance Checklist

32 Entry to Pre-Production

33 Final Compliance Checklist

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